Human Imperfection, Teboho Kibe [read a book .txt] 📗

Are we overloading others by broadcasting the latest news or trivia to long lists of acquaintances, perhaps consuming their valuable time? Should we not examine our motives before we hit the send button? What do we really want to accomplish? People used to write letters to share their own experiences with family and friends, keeping them up-to-date with what was going on in their life. Should this not be the focus of our e-mail? Why pass on to others something we cannot verify?

So, then, what should we do with regard to the Internet? Shun it altogether? That may be necessary in some cases. The Internet junkie mentioned earlier did that in order to overcome years of addiction. On the other hand, using the Internet can benefit us, provided we let ‘thinking ability keep guard over us and discernment safeguard us.’—Prov. 2:10, 11.

Okay friend, let’s think of part two now on the matter of internet and it’s usage, and see what we learn further. Think about this, in a remote village in India, a farmer checks the price of soybeans in Chicago, U.S.A., to determine the best time to sell his crop. At the same moment, a pensioner smiles as she reads an E-mail from her grandson, a traveller sees the weather forecast at his destination, and a mother finds helpful material for her child’s homework—all through the Internet. With an estimated 600 million people connected worldwide, the Internet revolution has transformed the way the world communicates and does business.

Especially has the younger generation, sometimes called the Cyber Generation, embraced the Internet. Increasingly, students use it to replace the library as a primary source of news and research. “In a nutshell, these students are . . . virtually 100 percent connected,” said Deanna L. Tillisch, director of a study involving college seniors in the United States. Yes, the Internet is a valuable tool in our modern society.

Generally, the more powerful a tool is, the more dangerous it can be. A gas-powered chain saw can accomplish far more than a handsaw; yet, it must be used carefully. The Internet is likewise extremely powerful and useful, but we must exercise caution when using it, as it also poses serious dangers. Concern about these dangers has caused more than 40 member nations of the Council of Europe to draft an international treaty aimed at the protection of society against cybercrime.

Why all the concern? What are some of the dangers that are of particular concern to Christians? Should they cause you to avoid using the Internet? What guidance does the Bible provide?

Need for Caution

Centuries ago, the Bible warned of dangers posed by evil men described as “master[s] at evil ideas” and “scheming to do bad.” (Proverbs 24:8) The prophet Jeremiah described them as “wicked men” whose “houses are full of deception.” Like birdcatchers, they “set a ruinous trap” to catch men and “gain riches.” (Jeremiah 5:26, 27) Technology has provided modern-day “wicked men” with deceptive traps of new dimensions. Let us consider some schemes that can present grave dangers for Christians.

Internet pornography is a 2.5-billion-dollar-a-year industry. The number of pornographic Web pages has grown at the explosive rate of nearly 1,800 percent over the past five years. It is estimated that there are currently over 260 million of such pages, and the number continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. “Pornography is becoming so prevalent on the Internet that it is now difficult to avoid unwanted exposure, and this makes cybersex addiction more likely,” said Dr. Kimberly S. Young, executive director of the Center for On-Line Addiction.

The Bible tells us that “each one is tried by being drawn out and enticed by his own desire.” (James 1:14) Viewing anyone with a computer as a potential victim, peddlers of pornography employ a variety of tactics to appeal to each one’s “own desire,” that is, “the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes.” (1 John 2:16) Their intent is to entice—or as Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words explains, “to lure by a bait”—unsuspecting Internet users whom they “try to seduce.”—Proverbs 1:10.

Like wicked men in Bible times, pornographers frequently employ deception. It is estimated that as part of an aggressive effort to attract new customers, some two billion pornographic E-mails are sent each day. Often the unsolicited E-mails have subject lines that make them appear harmless. However, opening one can launch a barrage of immoral images that is difficult to stop. Requests to be removed from the mailing list may result in a deluge of further unsolicited pornographic messages.

A birdcatcher carefully places seeds along a path. An unsuspecting bird pecks at one tasty seed after another until snap! the trap is sprung. Similarly, curiosity leads some to nibble at sexually stimulating imagery. And the viewers hope that no one is watching them. Finding it arousing, some return to this exciting and powerful imagery with increasing frequency. Shame and guilt may plague them. In time, what was once shocking becomes ordinary. For those inclined to view pornography, the Internet is like fertilizer that causes desires rapidly to grow into sinful actions. (James 1:15) Eventually such individuals may develop “a ‘dark side’ whose core is anti-social lust devoid of most values,” reports Dr. Victor Cline, a clinical psychologist who has treated hundreds of patients who were caught in this snare.

The Dangers of Chat Rooms

Internet chat rooms can be time wasters and are increasingly associated with relationship breakdowns. Expressing frustration over the amount of time his wife spends on-line, one man wrote: “When she gets in from work, the PC goes on and it can be five or more hours before she logs off. Our marriage is suffering as a result.” Yes, time spent on the Internet is time spent away from your mate and family.

Angela Sibson, chief executive of the marriage guidance service Relate, says that the Internet “is a gateway to other relationships. They can be very potent and break up existing relationships.” What starts as a friendly on-line conversation in a chat room can quickly become something more serious. Intent on engaging in immoral relations, those “cunning of heart” use “smoothness of the tongue” to tell potential victims what they want to hear. (Proverbs 6:24; 7:10) Nicola, a 26-year-old victim from the United Kingdom, explains: “It was like a love bombardment. He kept saying how wonderful I was and I fell for it.” Dr. Al Cooper, editor of Sex and the Internet: A Guidebook for Clinicians, says that we need to “warn people about the slippery slope that starts with online flirting and too often ends in divorce.”

Children are even more vulnerable to exploitation and harm by “computer-sex offenders.” Using “crookedness of speech” and “deviousness of lips,” pedophiles target inexperienced children. (Proverbs 4:24; 7:7) Engaging in a practice known as grooming, they shower the child with attention, affection, and kindness to make the youngster feel special. They seem to know everything a child is interested in, including that one’s favourite music and hobbies. Minor problems at home are accentuated in order to drive a wedge between the child and his or her family. To fulfil their evil desires, predators may even send their target victim a ticket to travel cross-country. The results are frightening.

Bible Principles Can Safeguard You

After assessing the dangers, some people have concluded that it is better for them to avoid using the Internet altogether. However, it must be acknowledged that only a small percentage of sites on the Internet pose a danger and that most users have not experienced serious problems.

Thankfully, the Scriptures provide guidance to “safeguard” us from danger. We are encouraged to acquire knowledge, wisdom, and thinking ability. Such qualities will ‘keep guard over us’ to ‘deliver us from the bad way.’ (Proverbs 2:10-12) “But wisdom itself—from where does it come?” asked God’s ancient servant Job. The answer? “The fear of Jehovah—that is wisdom.”—Job 28:20, 28.

“The fear of Jehovah,” which “means the hating of bad,” is the basis for developing godly attributes. (Proverbs 1:7; 8:13; 9:10) Love and reverence for God, along with a healthy respect for his power and authority, result in our hating and avoiding the bad things he hates. Clear thinking ability, coupled with godly knowledge, helps us recognize dangers that can poison our mind, heart, and spirituality. We come to abhor selfish and greedy attitudes that can wreck our family and destroy our relationship with Jehovah.

So if you use the Internet, be aware of the dangers. Be resolved to keep God’s commandments, and avoid flirting with trouble. (1 Chronicles 28:7) Then, if Internet dangers confront you, you will wisely flee from them.—1 Corinthians 6:18.

Friends, now let’s try to think of human imperfection as exhibited in organizational or religious institutions as we did earlier on in the book but with greater elevation this time.

The truth is that everyone needs hope. So, hope springs eternal in the human breast.” So said the English bard Alexander Pope in his “Essay on Man.” Two thousand years earlier Greek poet Theocritus put it this way: “There is hope as long as one is alive.” Much earlier still the Jewish wise man Solomon wrote: “For a man who is counted among the living there is still hope.”—Eccl. 9:4, The New English Bible.

Yes, men of all sorts have at all times needed hope. Today, there are millions who say that the only hope is a better world through Communism. They believe that revolutionary changes will bring in better times for the masses. They quote French Communist martyr Gabriel Péri in saying that, thanks to Communism, future generations will experience “happy tomorrows.” True, many people have seen the disappointing results achieved by governments that follow Marxist principles and have become disillusioned. Nevertheless, Communism is still the “hope” of millions among mankind who are seeking a world of social justice.

The Koran offers some half billion Muslims the hope of everlasting bliss in a paradise called “the Garden,” where the blessed will enjoy luxuries in their resurrected bodies. Many Muslims even hope for a millennium or 1,000-year reign of peace on earth before Judgment Day. Those rejected by Allah will be cast into “the Hot Place” for everlasting torment.

The hope of the hundreds of millions of Hindus and Buddhists is to attain the goal of Nirvana. For the Hindus, this represents literally a “blowing out” or extinction of the flame of life through absorption into Brahman or the impersonal universal soul. For the Buddhists, Nirvana is “the state of perfect blessedness achieved by the extinction of individual existence and by the absorption of the soul into the supreme spirit.”

Then for the hundreds of millions of people who claim to be Christians, hope is said to be one of the three “theological virtues,” together with faith and love. Of these three virtues, M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia states: “Faith is the root, love the fruit-bearing stem, and hope the heaven-reaching crown of the tree of Christian life.”

Agreeing with this Protestant work that hope for members of Christendom’s churches means going to heaven, The Catholic Encyclopedia says, under “Hope”: “[Hope] is defined to be a Divine virtue by which we confidently expect, with God’s help, to reach eternal felicity . . . All of this is intelligible only on the basis, which we take for granted, that there is such a thing as the supernatural order, and that the only realizable ultimate destiny of man in the present providence of God lies in that order. . . . hope has as its main object union with God in heaven.” (Italics ours)

So for Catholics and most Protestants the only hope set before them is “eternal felicity . . . in heaven.” If that fails, there is no hope whatsoever. Says A Catholic Dictionary: “The damned in hell cannot hope, for they can have no expectation of salvation.” The notice Dante imagined posted above the gates of hell read: “All hope abandon, ye who enter here.”

But is the alternative for all those who believe in God and Christ either “eternal felicity” in heaven or a hopeless state of eternal punishment in “hell”? Since Christianity’s roots sink deep into the Bible, how do the Scriptures define